October 16 - 11:07 p.m. EST vs. Alaska-Fairbanks | Video
October 17 - 8:07 p.m. EST vs. Alaska-Anchorage | Video

FAIRBANKS, Alaska This weekend marks an unusual trip as the American International College men's ice hockey squad will travel to the far Pacific Northwest for a pair of contests as part of the eighth annual Brice Alaska Goal Rush.

TIME CHANGE: Note that Alaska is in a time zone of its own, four hours behind Eastern Standard Time. So, with a 7:07 p.m. faceoff on Friday evening against Alaska-Fairbanks the game will conclude in the early morning hours on the east coast. Saturday the Jackets have the early game as they battle Alaska-Anchorage at 4:07 p.m. Alaska time.

PARTICIPANTS: This year's tournament will feature both Alaska schools, which has always been the case since the tournament originated in 2008, as well as AIC and RPI. The two non-Alaska schools will not face each other, but instead face each Alaska program once. This marks the second time that Rensselaer will make the trip as they join Mercyhurst as the only programs to participate twice. Other schools that have been a part of this event over the last seven seasons are Maine, Robert Morris, Colorado College, Union, Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota, Merrimack, Denver, Western Michigan, Air Force and Penn State.

GOAL RUSH HISTORY: An opponent from outside of The Last Frontier has never won this event as Alaska-Fairbanks is 11-1-2 all-time and have been crowned champions five times including the last three seasons. Alaska-Anchorage has won the other two years including the inaugural tournament in 2008 and are 8-5-1 overall. RPI turned in a 0-1-1 performance last time they made the trek to the far northwest as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Seawolves before losing in a shootout to the Nanooks 1-0 after a 1-1 tie through regulation and overtime.

FAST START, SLOW FINISH: For the fifth consecutive season AIC scored the opening goal of their season in the first 10 minutes of play, however, they were unable to maintain that momentum as UNH potted three second period goals to take control of the game. A late empty net score and a goal with 0.2 seconds left on the clock made the final outcome a lot more lopsided than the game itself and for the second straight opener the Yellow Jackets lost by identical 7-3 scores.

ROAD WARRIORS: These next two weekends of travel will make last week's two-hour 150 mile excursion to UNH seem like a Sunday afternoon drive. This is by far the longest trip of the season as AIC will make the 9,400 mile round trip to the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. They then turn around and make a 752 mile round-trip to Penn State for a pair of games on the 23rd and 24th. All told the Jackets will travel 18,758 miles this season for road contests.

DYNAMIC DUO: Junior Austin Orszulak (Springfield, Mass.) and sophomore Johno May (Mahtomedi, Minn.) picked up right where they left off a season ago in the opening game as each found the back of the net for a score. Orszulak opened the scoring giving AIC the early 1-0 edge at 7:35 of the first before assisting May on his third period score. The sophomore showed so fancy stick skills in recording his first goal of the season and extended his point streak to five games dating back to last season, the longest current streak on the team.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY: Freshman Johnny Mueller (St. Louis Mo.) is extremely familiar with the Fairbanks area as he played his junior hockey for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the NAHL over the past two and a half years. The rookie led the Ice Dogs to the NAHL Championship in 2014 while serving as an assistant captain and was the team's second leading scorer from the blue-line. Senior David Gandara (Canyon Lake, Calif.) also brought home hardware from Alaska in his earlier days as he lead the California Stars of the 18aaa to a Regional Championship in Alaska en route to a National Championship appearance. Both players are looking for similar success this time around.

"I'm really excited for this opportunity my senior year" mentioned Gandara. "All the guys are really excited to go and compete and we look to bring home some hardware."

ALL-TIME RESULTS: AIC is 2-0-0 all-time against Fairbanks as the two met during the 1981-82 season, however, in that same year they dropped both contests to Anchorage and boast a 0-2-0 record against the Seawolves. This marks the first meeting between all three schools since AIC jumped to Division I in 1999.

SCOUTING THE NANOOKS: Fairbanks returns their top two scorers from 2014-15 led by senior Tyler Morley (Burnaby, B.C.) as he potted 15 goals and added 22 assists for 37 points, a mark good for fourth in the entire WCHA. His 1.16 points per game mark was the highest in the league as he played in just 32 games for Alaska last season. Junior Marcus Basara (Port Moody, B.C.) recorded 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points.

SCOUTING THE SEAWOLVES: Anchorage has a less potent offensive attack as they only had one player from last year's roster register 20+ points. That player does return, however, in senior Blake Tatchell (North Battleford, Saskatchewan) who scored seven goals and added 15 assists for 22 points. The Seawolves also struggled on special teams last season killing off just 80.7 percent of penalties (121-for-150) and only converting 14.3 percent of their power plays (20-for-140) to rank near the bottom of the league. They also averaged the most PIM per game in the conference spending 16.3 minutes per contest in the Sin Bin.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: "This trip will be a unique experience" mentioned senior captain Chris Porter. "With 10 new players, this will be a great team bonding experience which is crucial to success this season. We plan to bring home some hardware and represent our school and Atlantic Hockey in the best way possible" concluded Orszulak.